Finding The Magic (Discontinued)

by Astral_Spectrum

3 The Princess of Friendship

“...and they beat the Siren's, saved the school, and then she came home.” Discord stopped finally to take a breath. He'd been talking the entire time with very few pauses. “And that is everything that's happened to present day.”, Discord finished with a grin.

“Where are you going with all of this anyway, Discord?” Astral asked, her arms crossed in disinterest. His summarized account of seemingly every event of the last two years on this world was all well and good, but Astral failed to see the point.

“Here!” Discord proclaimed.

“Here? You were going here?” Astral was confused. He wasn't making any sense.

“Yes, here. As in, “We're here!”, and “here” as in Ponyville!” Discord said ecstatically as he pointed to the town now visible from the edge of the forest.

“What are you...” Astral turned to look where he was pointing. Just over a small meadow sat a bustling town. Its buildings were simple, yet well kept houses. It wasn't unlike the villages she had been too back on Azeroth. What had her attention were all of the small and very colorful horses walking around the town. They came in all shapes and sizes and varying degrees of color. They had shops, and businesses, and they traded and bought and interacted with each other. “Wow. He wasn't making all that up.” Astral thought to herself. She just stood there in awe. This town wasn't very different than anything back home except its inhabitants were ponies.

“Well, don't just stand there. We still have to get to the other side of town.” Discord pointed to the large, crystalline tree that towered over the far side of the village. It sparkled and shimmered in the sunlight.

“That seems... out of place really.” Astral said trying not to be rude. It was a really pretty tree, but it was kind of an eyesore in contrast to the town itself below.

“Yea, its pretty new. It fits the landscape a lot better at night. Now hurry up, I...” Discord yawned heavily, “...still need my second cup of coffee.”

The pair set off down the main road of town toward the large tree. Astral couldn't help but notice how quickly she became the center of attention. It was almost as if as the pair walked by, everything came to a standstill. Ponies just halted whatever they were doing, and turned to look at her and Discord.

Astral's face was turning bright red as she tried to tuck herself down into her jacket. “Discord. They're all staring.” She whispered.

“Oh come now, they're just curious. Its not every day a human comes wandering through this little town.” Discord said trying to reassure her. He loved the attention and was quite happy having everyone's eyes fixated in his direction for once.

Astral was the exact opposite. She had wanted people to notice her and all that before, but not like this. Everyone's eyes were glued to her as if she had just shouted for attention and then followed up with just awkward silence. Her heart was racing and she just wanted to get away from the middle of the street. She just wanted this to be over. Suddenly, everything stopped at once and all Astral saw were stars as she found herself on the ground and very dizzy.

“Well, I was going to say we are here, but you clearly know that already.” Discord stated with a giggle. “Although, it is best if you open the door before walking through it.” He outright laughed as he opened the door and walked inside of the large crystal tree. “Twilight, I'm back, and I have your book plus something special!”

Astral stood up and dusted herself off. She quickly followed Discord inside and closed the door behind her. The inside of the tree was stunning. The bark itself was actually crystalline and formed a solid wall. There were windows and furniture and even staircases leading to more rooms and floors. This was far more than a tree, it was a home. Looking around she saw a purple pony pouring herself over a book at a table in the center of the room. The table itself was surrounded by seven large throne-like chairs. Astral noticed that in one of the chairs, a small purple dragon appeared to be reading a large stack of comic books.

“Oh. Discord. You're back. Thanks for getting that book for me. That castle can be dangerous, so I figured it would be safer to ask you instead of sending Spike, and what is the other thing you brou...” The purple pony stopped and just stared at Astral like she had seen a ghost. The dragon looked up and stared, his eyes lit up in excitement.

“Whoa-h-h! Cooool!” The dragon jumped down and ran over to Astral. “Hi. My names Spike. I'm a dragon! Are you a human? I didn't even know they lived here in Equestria!”

Astral was startled by Spike's sudden rush. It wasn't exactly the reaction she had expected to receive. “Oh. Uhh. Well, hi there Spike. My name's Astral Spectrum, and I'm... umm...” Astral wasn't sure what to say to the rather bouncy little dragon.

“I found her in the castle and offered to bring her back here like a good friend. Do you think you can help her get back home Twilight?” Discord turned and said with a smug grin. He opened one eye when he didn't get a response. “Twilight?”

The three of them looked as the purple pony just twitched and muttered incomprehensible noises. It was as if Astral's presence had shattered her grip on reality. They all ran over in surprise when she fainted and fell over.

Twilight began to open her eyes. “Hey. She's waking up.” Astral called out.

Discord and Spike ended their game of cards and rushed over, “Hey, Twilight? You alright?” Spike asked with a worried tone.

Her eyes began to readjust. “Yes. I'll be fine. I was just a little surprised is all.” She turned her attention to Astral. “I'm sorry about that. My name is Twilight Sparkle. I, uhh, got a little overloaded with questions and everything there, and, yeah...”

“It probably doesn't help that you've been awake reading for the last thirty-six hours straight.” Spike mumbled.

“You dropped like Rarity seeing fabric fall in the mud.” Discord snickered.

“I'm going to ignore that one.” Twilight shot back. “Anyway, who are you? How did you get here? Are you from Canterlot High? How did you get through the mirror? Why do you still look like a human?” Twilight started bombarding Astral with questions. She wanted to know absolutely everything about Astral and how she got here.

“Whoa. Twilight. Chill. Give her a second to actually answer.” Spike said. “Sorry about that Astral. She gets like that when weird things happen.”

“Its alright. I imagine this must be just as weird for all of you as it is for me.” Astral feigned a light laugh. “My name is Astral, Twilight. How I got here is a bit of a long story, but I don't know of any place called “Canterlot High” or anything about a mirror.” Astral sighed. She began to retell the events of the day to Twilight. Twilight sat intently listening to her curious tale, making sure not to miss a single detail, like a child at story-time. “And then Discord decided to bring me to see you. He figured you'd be able to help me.” Astral finished.

“So you encountered a magical trap that was able to rip a hole open between dimensions and drag you to an undetermined end point to which it would leave you in as it was calibrated to only travel in a single linear direction? This is unprecedented! Nothing like this has ever been done before, at least not as far as I've ever read, and I've read a lot!” Twilight bounced around the room in excitement in the most literal sense.

“I'm glad you see the scientific potential in her predicament, oh Princess of Friendship.” Discord said with a tone of sarcasm as he poured himself another cup of coffee.

Twilight stopped in her tracks. She turned around to see Astral who was clearly not in as ecstatic a mood as she was. “Oh. I'm so sorry. I didn't realize.” Twilight adjusted herself and stood more presentably. “I'm not usually like this, and Discord is right. Its my duty as a princess to help you. I'm not really sure how we can get you home, but I'm certain I can work out a way to at least help you get your magic back. We'll just have to figure out why its stopped working.” Twilight grinned.

“Uh oh. She's got that look in her eye.” Spike said with worry.

“What do you mean?” Astral inquired.

“That's the “Its time to do science!” look.” Spike responded.

A flash of light went off as soon as Spike finished talking. In an instant, Astral found herself strapped down into a strange chair with an even stranger helmet on her head. Astral's head was still spinning with how quickly her surroundings had changed. She quickly began to realize that a teleportation spell had gone off. “You can use magic?” Astral asked as she looked around at all the strange machines in what appeared to be a laboratory.

“Yes. Now, sit still. This machine is going to analyze any residual magical energy in your body to try and determine its origin. That way, once we know how you used to use magic, we'll be able to start figuring out how to bring it back.” Twilight explained.

The machine whirred and hummed. Astral felt a small jolt of electricity fire through her. The helmet made a buzzing sound and then a loud click resonated from the machine. “There. Now it just needs time to analyze the data.” Twilight said removing the helmet and straps from Astral.

“How long will it take?” Astral asked as she stared at the machines. They clicked and buzzed as lights flashed on and off across several different panels. She'd never seen anything quite like it before.

“Probably overnight. Why don't we head upstairs and I can go over some useful information about my world. You might be here awhile after all, and it would certainly help you out and pass the time. I'm sure I have at least one guest bed in here somewhere too.” Twilight motioned toward the stairway leading out of the lab, and the pair headed back upstairs.